Gleanings from the Olivet Discourse, Part 2

Introduction: Gleaning from the Olivet Discourse

0:04 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, July 31st, 1988, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. We seek the face of God in prayer. It may be that there are some visiting among us who are not aware that we have a fully staffed nursery for little ones, and there are also loudspeakers down in the lower foyer, and it is our policy, believing that the worship and preaching of the word of God should not be at all distracted.

0:44 If you have little ones, please do not assume that they will, after three or four distractions, quiet down, but immediately remove them, if you will, please, and you have those various options. Now let us seek the face of God in prayer and ask the Lord to do as we have sung, that Christ himself will...

1:07 that Christ himself will draw near in the preaching of his own holy word.

1:14 Our Father, we do thank you that we do not come to a bare letter, but to you, the living God. And we thank you that the Christ whom you have set forth in the scriptures is indeed the living Christ who fills up his own word with his own living presence. We thank you for the infallibility...

1:40 We thank you for the infallibility of the Bible record. We thank you that it stands objective and true. And though the whole world should rise up and utterly disdain it, we thank you, it is still your word. But we also bless you that by the Spirit, the Christ whom it proclaims draws near in its preaching.

2:03 And we confess that our hearts cannot be satisfied with merely filling our minds... with new or with old notions freshly underscored.

2:17 But our hearts, O Lord, yearn for you and for your Son and to experience felt communion with you, the triune God. Come then and feed us with yourself as we study your word together. We ask these mercies in Jesus' name. Amen.

2:45 Now in the process of our consecutive expositions of the Gospel of Mark, we recently completed an opening up of the thirteenth chapter of that Gospel commonly designated as the Olivet Discourse. I would ask you to turn to that chapter with me, Mark chapter 13. Because of the widespread confusion and abundance of the Bible, and abundance of the Bible, and abundance of the Bible, and abundance of the Bible, and abundance of carnal speculation that abounds in the Church relative to prophetic matters, I was determined in expounding this chapter

3:26 to keep a very tight rein upon myself so that when we came to the end of the chapter, those of you who listened with any degree of attention would have some permanent understanding of the structure of the chapter, the basic emphases of the chapter, and the overall thrust of the purpose of our Lord in speaking these words as he sat on the side of the Mount of Olives just a couple of days prior to his crucifixion. Now keeping that tight rein upon myself meant that I had to submerge the desire

4:10 to underscore and highlight several very vital principles of the Bible. Of the Christian life, vital principles of saving truth as revealed in the Scriptures, and so under the imagery of going back to a field already having undergone its main harvesting, we are now returning to pick up the gleanings. We sought to harvest the major structure and emphasis of this discourse in which our Lord focuses upon two, great events in the history of redemption, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.,

4:54 and then his own second advent at the end of the age. Several weeks ago we went back and gathered the first two bundles of those gleanings from the Olivet Discourse. This morning, I trust, together we will go back through this field and gather two more bundles, and with that, complete our study of the Olivet Discourse and, God willing, next week take up the beginning of our examination of chapter 14. The first bundle of gleanings that we gathered I expressed in these terms or in these words.

Recap of First Two Gleanings: Gospel Primacy and Election's Preservation

5:34 Whatever disruptive events occur in the world, the people of God must never be moved from the primacy of preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. You will remember, I trust, that in verses 5 through 13, our Lord describes the major characteristics that will obtain throughout the entire inter-advental period, that is, the period from the first to the second coming of Christ. And he describes things that are very disruptive. He describes vast religious deception, He describes vast religious deception, He describes vast religious deception,

6:17 in verse 5 and 6. He describes tremendous international upheaval, in verses 7 and 8, wars and rumors of wars and kingdoms pitted against kingdoms. He describes tremendous opposition to the gospel and to its messengers, in verses 9 and following, and yet nestled in the midst of the description of those disruptive events. He says in verse 10, And the gospel must first be preached unto all the nations.

6:57 And in the parallel passage in Matthew 24, he said this gospel shall be preached in all the world for a witness, and then shall the end come. And so our Lord is clearly stating in this passage, And so our Lord is clearly stating in this passage, that whatever disruptive events in whatever combination or in whatever degree of intensity come upon the people of God or upon the world, God's people must never be moved from the primacy of preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. The very gospel that is set forth in the gospel of Mark,

7:42 The very gospel that is set forth in the gospel of Mark, pertains to God's unique Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel that focuses upon His redemptive work in His voluntary bloodletting, dying under the anathema of God, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. We must not be paralyzed into non-activity through fear of these disruptive events. We must not be intimidated into silence in the face of suffering and opposition.

8:19 And we must not be diverted into secondary issues, seeking to bring about a state where there will be no wars and no opposition to the gospel. Our energies are not to be expended primarily in that direction, but in the midst of these disruptive events, we are to be absorbed and preoccupied, with the proclamation of the gospel to the ends of the earth. Then the second gleaning I expressed in these words, Whatever distressing events may come to the world in general, or to the people of God in particular,

9:03 God's elect will all be preserved, called, kept, and glorified. In verses 20, 22, and 27, our Lord speaks of the elect. But for the elect's sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days. Further in verse 22, He says, that they may lead astray, if possible, the elect.

9:34 And then with reference to His own second advent in verse 27, Then shall He send forth the angels and gather together His elect, Then shall He send forth the angels and gather together His elect, from the four winds. So in this section in which our Lord is dealing exclusively with the destruction of Jerusalem, and with that intense tribulation that would attend the occupation of Jerusalem and its ultimate destruction, and the complete dismantling of the temple, He says, in the midst of all of those distressing events, the elect of God, our Lord, are to be preserved, called, kept, and glorified. The elect of God are His great concern.

10:16 It is for the sake of their preservation that the very duration of the siege of Jerusalem would be determined in its length and in its intensity. None of God's elect can lose their lives until God has brought them to Himself through the gospel. So for the elect's sake, He shortened the days of tribulation, attending the destruction of Jerusalem. Furthermore, in spite of these false teachers who attest their false teaching with signs and wonders, the elect cannot and will not be deceived, for God has given them the spirit of truth.

11:01 Their Savior prays for them at the right hand of the Father that they may be kept, and so the elect shall be preserved. They shall be called. They shall be kept. And at His second coming, His great and central concern will be to gather together His elect, living and dead, from the four corners of the earth.

11:24 And so this truth then becomes one of great consolation to the Son of God as He faces what awaits Him in the next few days at Jerusalem, rejection, scourging, spittle upon His face, buffeting in mockery, and worst of all, to be utterly inundated beneath the billows of divine wrath against the sins of His people. What is it that makes Him go steadfastly to Jerusalem? It is the certainty that He has been entrusted with the salvation of all of God's elect.

12:05 And this truth was not only one of consolation to the Son of God, but it was given to be one of comfort to the followers of Christ in the midst of the tremendous tribulation that some of them would experience, for He said these things will come to pass within their very generation. What was to be their comfort as they saw the ominous clouds of this great intense tribulation coming upon them? What was to be their comfort as they saw the teachers of error validating their teaching even with signs and wonders? Their comfort was to be that as the elect of God,

12:50 God was committed to keep them in the way of truth and in the way of holiness. And then what confidence this should give the servants of God in their ministry. None of us is sent on a fool's errand. Jesus said, Other sheep I have that are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.

13:19 And it is a source of tremendous comfort to a true servant of God to know if as he preaches one of God's elect is there before him and it is the time for the great shepherd to call one of his sheep, no matter how feeble and stumbling his efforts may be, no matter how cold his own heart may feel, no matter how much his own words may come back in his ears and mock him, the great shepherd has determined to call one of his sheep. Nothing will hinder that sheep from hearing the voice of the Son of God and coming into the fold. Well, those were the two armfuls of gleanings

Third Gleaning: God's Provisions for Demanding Events (Grace, Spirit, Throne of Grace)

14:04 that we gathered in our previous study. Now this morning, we go back into the field already harvested by way of major exposition and application, and we want to fill up our arms with these final two gleanings, and I express the third bundle in these words. Whatever demanding events may come to the people of God prior to the second coming, the grace of God, the Spirit of God, and the throne of grace are their three great provisions. Whatever demanding events may come

14:46 to the people of God prior to the second coming, the grace of God, the Spirit of God, and the throne of grace are their three great provisions. Note the situation as described in verse 11. During the inter-advental period, that period will be marked by the world's opposition to the gospel. And I say again, the Bible nowhere envisions a time prior to the second coming when the lovers of truth and of the gospel will be in the majority throughout the world.

15:29 That notion simply will not stand on Bible feet. And no matter how noble men's motives may be, when they spin out a theology of latter-day glory or whatever it may be termed in which they speak of a world in which the majority are saved prior to the second coming, they fly into the face of dozens of Scripture, they fly into the face of our Lord's own inspired description of the overall climate of the inter-advental period. It will be a period in which men in general will oppose the gospel.

16:11 They will oppose the preachers of the gospel. They will oppose the agencies for the proclamation of the gospel. And yet our Lord does not leave His people comfortless. Notice what He says in verse 11.

16:27 And when they lead you to judgment and deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand what you shall speak, but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour that speak. Our Lord envisions this opposition coming to such a focused and concentrated expression that some of those who hear His voice will literally be handed over to the authorities even as He was about to be handed over

17:10 to the Roman authorities. And He knew it. And He said, now in the light of that certainty, what are you to do? Are you to wake up every morning and nervously bite your fingers down to the quick?

17:23 Are you to wake up every morning trembling like a leaf in the midst of a hurricane, wondering, well, will I have the strength? Will I have the grace? Well, He said, no, no, no. Do not be anxious.

17:35 Do not be anxious beforehand. Do not be thinking ahead of the event precisely how shall I best vindicate the claims of Christ? How shall I best testify to the great? He said, no.

17:50 Do not be anxious beforehand as the circumstances of that concentrated opposition are unknown to you in their particulars. Do not be anxious trying to anticipate all of the possible ways the opposition might impinge upon you and all of the possible ways in which you ought to respond to it. Don't do that. Do not be anxious beforehand what you shall speak.

18:21 But now notice, whatsoever shall be given you. You see what our Lord is saying? He is asserting that His people in those circumstances shall never lack that dimension of grace necessary to find them in the posture of being given what is necessary for God's glory and for the vindication of their faith. Whatsoever shall be given you.

18:59 He is saying it shall be given. And whenever we confront those words, shall be given, we are in the realm of grace. What have you that you have not received? And if you were to take a concordance and look up the usages of this verb, to give, you would find it is the verb that is used again and again to connect the activity of God with one of the specific gifts of the grace of God.

19:36 It is the Spirit who is given. It is the Son who is given. It is grace that is given. All of these things that flow out of the infinitely wide and loving heart of God for His people come in the way of givenness.

19:56 They come as pure gift. They come as the expression of grace. And so, as we go back into the field and think of the inter-advental period, and think of those things that may come upon some of us even in our own generation, as there is more and more an erosion of common grace, and as in one way or another each of us who lives with any degree of consistency faces opposition to the gospel, this is to be our provision, this is that upon which we rely, not our cleverness,

20:40 not our well thought out pre-cast response to this or that supposed manifestation of opposition. Take no thought beforehand. It shall be given. Then in verse 11 you will notice that our Lord focuses upon the person who mediates and applies this grace.

The Holy Spirit as the Mediator of Grace and Courage

21:06 He says, For it is not you that speak, but the Holy Spirit. Now there would be some legitimate debate as to whether or not this was a unique promise with unique literal fulfillment for those unique office bearers in the church called apostles. And I would not want to enter into the pros and cons of that debate. I am aware that there is a debate.

21:39 But by the analogy of Scripture, that is, by the overall teaching of Scripture, surely none who is acquainted with that overarching teaching of Scripture would contest the legitimacy of extracting this principle. Our Lord is teaching His own that the grace needed to speak as they ought in that situation that they should not be anxious about. That grace will find, as it were, a conduit into their very heart and mind and mouth by the personal ministry of the personal gift and presence of God the Holy Spirit.

22:23 What is to be the great provision for the people of God in the midst of the demanding events that may come to them between the first and the second coming of Christ? Well, their hope is to be in the grace of God, yes, but grace that comes to terminate upon the specific demands made upon me in the will of God, not by some impersonal force, not by some vague or nebulous influence, but by the ministry of the person of the Holy Spirit who is given as the gift of grace,

23:05 the gift of grace to every single humble believer in Jesus Christ. For you will remember it was at this time in another set of circumstances that our Lord gave what is called His great upper room discourse as recorded in John 13, 14, 15, and 16. And in those chapters He speaks in language that at times strains faith to the uttermost of how much more blessed would be the state of the disciples after the departure of their Lord that the person of the Holy Spirit

23:50 as the Spirit of the exalted Christ, the free donation of Christ based upon the sufficiency of the work of Christ would come to take up His permanent indwelling in the heart of every single believer. And so in the face then of the concreteness of the events and the problems the people of God will face, what is the provision of God? If we are to live in an age that will be marked by abounding religious error, if many will come in His name saying, I am He, and lead many astray, verse 6,

24:33 if according to verse 22 there shall arise false Christ and false prophets and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, the elect, how are we going to sort out truth from error? Well, He is called the Spirit of Truth whom the Father would send, and as John says, you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things. He says that you need not that any man teach you, but that anointing teaches you. It is the personal, gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts, influencing our minds and judgments through and by the Word that the elect of God are able to discern truth from error.

25:17 How are we natively cowardly, flimsy, weak, vacillating creatures to have the kind of courage that will stand for the truth of Christ and for the gospel of Christ, if necessary, even unto death? Verse 12. There shall be this horrible disruption and overthrowing of even natural affection, children rising up against parents and causing them to be put to death. You sit there today and say, Pastor, that's one thing I could never be.

25:53 I could never be a martyr if I knew it. If they shot me in the back and didn't tell me they were doing it, then I could be a martyr. But there's no way I could look and straighten the eye and walk toward the gun. I'm just not put together that way.

26:09 If I hear a creaking board at night, I can't sleep for the rest of the night. I imagine the burglar coming in every window. I am such a naturally timid, fearful person. The first clap of thunder three miles away, I'm sure the next one's going to be right over my head and the lightning bolt's going to come right down and catch me in the nose.

26:28 I'm fearful. I'm put together that way. How could I ever have the courage to stand and say, If necessary, it will be my blood before I will deny my Savior? Well, you see, it is the Holy Spirit who gives that moral courage.

26:47 He took a Peter who, before a little maid, who said, Hey, you're one of them. Your speech betrays you. And his speech was then filled with his old sailor's language. He cursed and he swore and said, I don't know the man.

27:04 What made the difference? But a little while later he stands before those very people and charges them with being the murderers of the Son of God. Looks them straight in the eye and says, You by wicked hands have crucified and slain him. What gives him courage a little while later to be found in prison and thinking he's going to be executed?

27:27 He's sleeping as soundly as a baby after its last bottle or its last full nursing before it goes to bed at night. Peter's so sound asleep, it says an angel had to smite him to wake him up and get him out of prison. Now, you don't undergo personality changes like that so quickly overnight. The answer was the Holy Spirit.

27:51 The Spirit of God had come to take up His permanent, full, new covenant dimension indwelling in Peter. And He made of him a man of moral courage. And dear people, you have the same Holy Spirit dwelling in you. And while you feel, I could never have the courage to seal my testimony with my blood, why should the Holy Spirit give you that courage?

28:15 You haven't been asked to do it yet. But have you been willing to put your job on the line for the sake of the gospel? You say, Yes, Pastor. There have been times when I've said to my boss, If I must be party to this dishonesty, you'll have my resignation.

28:31 You put your job on the line. Who gave you that courage? The Holy Spirit did. That's all the courage you needed was to put your job on the line.

28:39 And when the time comes to put your life on the line, the Holy Spirit will give you every needed measure of courage. See what our Lord is saying? In this inter-advental period, with all of its disruptions, whatever demanding events may come to you, the people of God, prior to the second coming, the grace of God, it shall be given. The Spirit of God are our great provisions.

The Throne of Grace: Prayer's Influence on God's Decrees

29:09 And then look at verses 18 and 33. When he is speaking about the destruction of Jerusalem, that event which he clearly teaches in verses 28 to 31 would come to pass within the lifetime of some of those who heard him. And we know that it did come to pass less than 40 years after he spoke these words. Though the event is certain, notice what our Lord said in verse 17.

29:40 But woe unto them that are with child and with those that give suck in those days, and pray that it be not in the winter. For those days shall be tribulations such as there have not been like from the beginning of creation which God created until now and never shall be. That's an amazing statement. And I remember in my preparation how it was so hard to keep the sickle in my hand and go clean through reaping those verses and not pause.

30:14 Did you feel as we went through them, did some of you wonder, I wonder if the pastor is going to go back and deal with that? The Lord talks about an event that is fixed in the counsels of God, an event that in his own understanding of the Father's will, it had been revealed to him in his posture as the servant of the Lord that it would come to pass within that generation, yet he says, pray that it be not in the winter. In other words, as you feel your own weakness and you anticipate this tremendous trial that will come in fleeing to the mountains, when you see the abomination

30:58 that makes desolate standing where it ought not, when you see the approaching Roman armies, Luke 21, and you see the insignia of their heathen gods upon them, upon their very shields, and everything about them bespeaks their determination to go in and desecrate the temple, then it's time to flee. And though in fleeing there will be obstacles and difficulties in the midst of it, he says, don't be withered into a spirit of defeatism. Don't come to the place where you throw your hands up saying, how can I face all of the difficulties

31:41 and flee for my life and preservation in obedience to the word of my Lord? He says, pray. And the clear indication is that the prayers of the people of God are woven into the texture of the decrees of God that determine the actions of heathen armies. Now put that in any other pipe but a solid deterministic Calvinistic pipe and try to smoke it.

32:11 You see what he's saying? The decision of the armies with regard to the seeds of Jerusalem is going to be influenced in its timing by your prayers. Pray that it be not in the winter. Would you say that creates all kinds of problems in my mind?

32:34 Well, the Lord didn't say it to create problems. He said it to elicit prayer. He said it to convince his people that there is no set of circumstances however demanding, however distressing, that Almighty God cannot alter in answer to prayer. That's the message.

32:53 That's the message. And so, dear people of God, whatever, whatever demanding events may come to us prior to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we not only have the grace of God, it shall be given, the Spirit of God, but we have the throne of grace as the great provision for us in our weakness. Now there is a great principle that needs to be driven home by way of application, and it is this, that we should not only recognize that each demand in the will of God upon us

The Necessity of Consistent Prayer for Crisis Effectiveness

33:38 is ultimately a demand upon God's grace towards us, that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, not as luxury, but He dwells in us to effect and communicate every grace needed that we may bear a consistent witness to Christ. But dear child of God, listen to this principle. Rarely does a man or woman ever find comfort at the throne of grace in a crisis who does not frequent that throne in his most ordinary days.

34:16 Rarely does anyone find any comfort in recourse to the throne of grace in a crisis who does not frequent the throne of grace in his ordinary days. These are the people whom our Lord has already taught in such words as the Sermon on the Mount. When you pray, enter into your closet and after this manner pray, Our Father, who art in the heavens, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done. Prayer for His kingdom, prayer for forgiveness, prayer for overcoming grace.

35:01 It is the assumption that the man who prays with any degree of effectiveness in the crisis is no stranger at the throne of grace. You see, if you have not proven God in the day-by-day supplies of grace, received at the throne of grace for the lesser demands made upon you, you are not suddenly going to have this great baptism of faith that can believe that God can engineer the activities of armies and the circumstances of the siege of an entire city and the very season in which that siege will be intensified or lessened.

35:42 It does not work that way. Faith, like every other grace, grows by exercise. And effectiveness at the throne of grace is developed not in reading books about prayer, but in praying and in wrestling with God. And likewise, when He comes then to give His final word, after teaching that the day of His return and the hour is unknown even to Himself, here in the period of His humiliation, what is His great exhortation?

36:17 Verse 33, Take heed, watch, and pray, for you do not know when the time is. If I am to be in a state of readiness for the Lord's return, what do I need? I need to be kept in the way of holiness. I need to be kept in the way of responsible fulfillment of my God-given stewardship.

36:42 I need to be kept in the way of a heart that is permeated with the spirit and the truth of the gospel. All that involves readiness, where am I to get it? Jesus said, Take heed, watch, and pray, for you know not when the time is. And in the light of the uncertainty of the time, but the certainty of what the Scripture reveals concerning what it is to be ready, get all that you need to be ready at the throne of grace.

37:18 All the grace needed to be kept in the way of spiritual alertness, all the grace needed to be kept in the way of a burning heart when Matthew's parallel account says, Because iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold. Well, in a day when the love of the many waxes cold and parallel with 2 Timothy, in the latter days when men shall have a form of godliness denying the power, where can I keep it? Where can I keep the burning heart? We know, those of us who've tried our hand at backyard cooking, that if you take one utterly lifeless,

38:02 stone-cold lump of charcoal and throw it on a bed of glowing coals, it's only a matter of minutes before it has absorbed the glow and ignited until it is so much a part of that glowing mass, you can't distinguish the lump that you threw in. But if there is a whole lump of lifeless, cold, unignited bricks of charcoal, you can take one that's white-hot, glowing clean through with redness to its very heart, place it in the midst of the others and in a matter of minutes all its fire is gone.

38:45 Because iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold, there is a contagion of spiritual coldness. There is a contagion of spiritual chill. There is a contagion of estrangement from Christ. Where can I keep a white-hot heart for God in the midst of all of such coldness?

39:10 Here's our Lord's answer. Pray. Pray. It's in the secret place, in the drawing near, in the wrestlings, in the agony, in the perplexities of prayer that the heart is kept warm, sensitive, intense in its love to Christ, its sensitivity to sin, its central focus and concern upon the coming of Christ and the spread of the Gospel and the issues that are closest to the heart of God.

39:43 It is there at the throne of grace. What I'm trying to say is this, dear people. Neglect the throne of grace. And you will not know the ministry of the Spirit nor the ministry of the grace of God.

39:59 You see, we read Psalm 2 this morning. Jesus Christ is the mediator, is bound by the law of asking and receiving. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said unto my Lord.

40:16 What? Ask of me, and I will give thee. God's decree to give his own Son the nations as the inheritance of his suffering comes in the way of asking. Has God decreed to keep his own to the end?

40:37 We've seen that. We've already concentrated upon the three uses of elect in this passage. The elect of God shall be preserved, called, kept, and glorified, but not automatically, not apart from or irrespective of their own endeavors. And he who gives off praying has taken the first sure steps to apostasy.

41:04 He may have taken no steps to a whorehouse, to a magazine shop, may have taken no steps into positive error, but he whose steps are not moving daily to the secret place has taken his first steps to apostasy. John Bunyan saw this as a pastor. And in that picture of the man in the iron cage, whoever he was, whatever his condition was, when he was asked, how did you come to this condition? You remember what the first part of his response was?

41:43 I left off to watch and to pray. To watch and to pray. Only later on does he say, I laid the reins upon the neck of my lusts. You cannot be drawn aside by your lusts until, first of all, you leave off to pray.

42:11 You say, Pastor, you mean I came out Sunday morning to have you tell us something so basic as that? My friends, that's what Jesus gave in this context. In the inter-advental period, whatever demanding events may come to us as the people of God, what are our great provisions? The sufficiency of God's grace, the gift of the indwelling Spirit, and the throne of grace that is open to us with our blessed mediator sitting at the right hand of the Father, pleading our cause in his presence.

Fourth Gleaning: Cling to What is Clear and Certain about the Second Coming

42:55 And then I conclude with this fourth gleaning, and we'll touch upon it more briefly, because I've sounded this note occasionally in the exposition, but now I want to gather up all of these fragments into this specific gleaning from the chapter, and it is this. Whatever uncertain events may precede, surround, or follow the second coming, whatever uncertain events may precede, surround, or follow the second coming, cling with a death-drip to what is clear and what is certain.

43:38 It is amazing. How men and women will waste their time and their mental energy and jeopardize their souls dabbling in what is not clear with respect to the second coming, while letting the things that are clear and certain slip through their fingers to their souls' detriment. Dear people of God, there are many things uncertain with respect to the events that may precede, surround, and follow the second coming. We have seen the great principle that in predictive prophecy

44:22 God does not give us detailed, pre-written history. He gives us the great focal points upon which we are to pin our hopes and our expectations, and many of the details are only made clear after the event, so there is prophecy, fact, and then meaningful interpretation and understanding of details. But, oh, our Lord, in this very chapter and in the parallel passages and in the rest of the Word of God has given to us sufficient data that we can cling to with a death-drip

45:05 and know that certain things indeed will, shall, must come to pass. Now, what is clear from Mark 13? Well, I hope all of you who sat through the expositions could answer the question. What is clear?

Four Clear and Certain Truths about Christ's Return

45:23 Number one, that one certain event which had to occur prior to the second coming has come to pass. That much is clear. Verse 24, But in those days after that tribulation, referring to the tribulation in conjunction with the destruction of Jerusalem, after, in those days after that tribulation, then he describes the second advent, our Lord told His own, only one event must come to pass before my second coming, and that is the destruction of Jerusalem. That occurred in 70 A.D.

46:06 Therefore, every generation of Bible-believing Christians from that day till this has lived in the hope and the expectation of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hold that with a death-drip so that none will persuade you to believe our Lord delays His coming because that's the language of the evil servant who is met with judgment at the return of His Lord. Secondly, the one sure sign of His coming will be His visible presence in the coming itself. The one sure sign of His coming will be His visible presence.

46:51 Verse 26, Then shall they see the Son of man coming. They asked, What shall be the sign of Thy coming? And He says, The sign will be the coming itself. The one sure certain sign of His coming will be the fulfillment of Revelation 1-7.

47:12 Every eye shall see Him, and they who pierced Him shall mourn for Him. Hold that in a death-drip. Refuse to let it go. And when men say, Well, this must certainly be the sign that in five, ten years He will come.

47:35 Our brother Rob came back from the recent bookseller's confession with a book in which a man's got it narrowed down to two days later on this year. Though the Son of God said, The day or the hour even the Son of man does not know. They've got it nailed down. And he's got it all laid out.

47:51 These are the signs. My friends, according to Jesus, the one sure sign of His coming will be the coming one Himself with His entourage of the holy angels and the clouds of Shekinah glory. And it is that for which we wait and long. Thirdly, in this chapter Jesus made clear that the one central activity at His coming will be the final separation of the godly and the ungodly.

48:22 Verse 27 states the positive. He shall gather His elect. And in the expanded treatment of this found in Matthew's Gospel, He shall not only gather His elect, but He shall also send forth His angels to gather the ungodly and the unbelieving and the wicked and consign them to everlasting torment. Oh, my dear people, listen to me.

48:48 Embrace no doctrine of the second coming that gives any hope beyond that coming for any sinner. There is no second chance in any period of tribulation, any period of a millennium, in any period following the coming when He comes. That's it. The severance is made.

49:10 And the elect will be gathered. The unbelieving shall stand before His throne and be consigned to hell and to judgment. That's why Paul could say in 2 Thessalonians 1 to suffering Christians, You who are afflicted, rest with us when the Lord shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire with His mighty angels taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His might, when He shall come

49:54 to be glorified in His saints. Being glorified in His saints and consigning the wicked to hell are concurrent activities. Hold it with a death grip. Hold it with a death grip.

50:07 Don't kid yourself into thinking, Well, if I resist the overtures of the gospel now and the Lord should come and everything I've heard comes to pass, well, then I'll have a three and a half year or seven year period. It'll be a little harder, but then I'll know it's real. I'll have a chance to repent. No, my friend, when your eyes see the returning Lord, if they are not eyes that have first of all fixed upon Him by faith, hanging upon a tree, there impaled for sinners, if they are not eyes that have by faith seen beauty in Christ, beauty that has vacuated your heart of its whorish attachment to the world,

50:51 thrown off the rings and symbols of marriage to this present age, and caused your heart to be engaged in loving fidelity to Christ, if the eyes that see Him when He returns have not first of all seen Him crucified as the only hope of sinners, believing upon Him to salvation, if they are not eyes that have seen a beauty in Him that has ravished the heart, weaned it from the world, my friend, hear me, when those eyes see Him, they will be filled with terror, for His eyes will meet yours, His eyes as a flame of fire. He'll summon you to the bar of His judgment and calling you by name, He will arraign you,

51:35 for your sins of thought and word and deed, and your own conscience will rise up, not to be your attorney to plead your cause, but it'll be your prosecuting attorney to amen everything that the living Christ from His throne says, and that Christ will cast you into hell. Don't play with this truth. Don't play with this truth. The one central activity will be the final separation of the godly and the ungodly.

The Unknowable Time and the Danger of Date-Setting

52:09 Fourthly, our Lord made plain in this chapter and hold it with a death grip that the one sure thing concerning the time of the second coming is its unknowableness. Verse 32, But of that day and that hour knows no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. One of the things that breaks my heart is unless God does something unusual in spite of such clear teaching and warning, some of you are going to start dabbling in literature and in tapes and in radio programs that profess to be wiser than Jesus. And I remind you of what Peter said.

52:51 It is concerning just such things that the ignorant and the unstable twist the Scriptures to their own destruction. Almost inevitably, the mind that begins to get fascinated with dates indicates a heart that has become unfascinated with communion with Christ and a life of holiness. Mark it down. When the mind gets fascinated with dates, it's usually because the heart is no longer fascinated with Christ and with holiness.

53:28 But it dare not throw off all semblance of interest in the Bible. And so people remain diligent students of the Bible in order to tickle the fancy of their brains but no longer to see Christ mirrored in the book that their love to Him might be nurtured and deepened and made more sensitive, that their faith might be strengthened, that they might have a conscience more honed by the law of God. They've long since given up communion with Christ and the pursuit of holiness. And now they're fascinated with dates.

Summary of Certainties and the Central Duty of Readiness

54:01 Oh, dear people of God, hear me this morning. Hold with a death grip. What is clear, and what is clear is that the one certain event which had to occur has occurred. The one sure sign it is coming will be the coming itself.

54:17 The one central activity will be the final separation. And the one sure thing concerning its time is that it is unknowable. And finally, the one central duty for every believer is perpetual readiness. Verses 33 to the end.

54:35 Take heed. Be continually watching and praying, for you know not when the time is. Then our Lord gives an illustration and then He clinches the point again. Verse 37.

54:47 And what I say unto you I say unto all. Be continually watchful. There is our one central duty, perpetual readiness. And what is readiness?

55:02 Not going out and doing something heroic, but living the day, each day, in the light of the Word of God. In dependence upon the Spirit of God. In communion with the Son of God. That means as a mother, if it was revealed from heaven that Jesus would come tomorrow, you'd still be up at the same hour fixing your hubby's breakfast, preparing your children for the day, planning out your labors for the day as a keeper at home and as a carer of your little ones.

55:33 You'd do nothing different because you're living your life by principled obedience to the Word of God. And that's what readiness is. It's not going out and doing some heroic thing saying, well, if the Lord's coming tomorrow I'll give up all my duties as a housewife and a mother and I'll run up and down the street saying, Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming, Jesus is coming. May I say to you that would be to be found unprepared at His coming.

55:58 Because Jesus nowhere told a housewife to go up and down the streets yelling, Jesus is coming. But He says the older women are to train the younger women to be keepers at home, to love their husbands, love their husbands, love their children, to be workers at home, etc., etc., etc.

56:13 That's what it means to be ready. To be found in the path of principled, diligent obedience out of love for Christ and independence upon the Holy Spirit. Hold that with a death grip and let no one turn you aside from it. And what do I say to you who are yet in your sins though I've already pleaded with you?

A Solemn Warning to the Unconverted

56:38 My friend, take it seriously. You're going to see Him. With joy or with terror. And in the earlier hours of the morning as I was thinking upon that point, my mind went back to a song that when I was in the itinerant ministry and didn't know better, I used to sing solos.

57:02 I didn't do it for show. I did it for when I felt it would clinch the message. And an old song that I sang came back to me. And these are its words.

57:16 I dreamed that the great judgment morning had come and the trumpet had blown. I dreamed that the great judgment morning had come and the trumpet had blown. I dreamed that the Lord had come, the song goes on to say, and its refrain is this, and oh what a weeping and a wailing when the lost were told of their fate. They cried for the rocks and the mountains.

57:50 They prayed, but their prayer was too late. The moral man came to the judgment, but his self-righteous rags would not do, for the men who had crucified Jesus had passed off as moral men too. The man that had put off salvation. Not today!

58:12 I'll get saved! That was his language, what happened to him. No time now to think of salvation. But alas, he found time to die.

58:30 That's some of you. That's some of you right there. Right there. That's where you are.

58:35 You're the man, the woman, the boy, the girl who puts off salvation. Not today! I'll get saved by and by. No time now to think of religion.

58:48 No time now to think of repentance and faith and discipleship. Saying no to the world and yes to Christ. But my friend, you will find time to die, but in the time of God's appointment, not yours. And oh, what a weeping and wailing when the lost are told of their fate.

59:09 You will cry for rocks and for mountains. You'll pray, but your prayer will be too late. Who will you charge with your guilt when you've been told He's coming? When the one certain event that had to come to pass, has come to pass, and He commands you to be prepared for His coming?

59:41 Oh, my unconverted friend, fly to this Christ. In a couple of days after He spoke these words, He would deliberately, knowingly, walk the path that would lead to the cross and to the horrible anathema of God upon Him. There He would taste the hell we deserve, culminating His life of loving obedience in that obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. My friend, run to that Jesus.

Closing Prayer and Exhortation

60:13 Ask God to give you eyes to behold His beauty, His trustworthiness, the sufficiency of His work for sinners. And dear people of God, never let those central truths get out of your eye, for we grow and we live and become strong, not by going beyond the cross, but by staying near the cross. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for Your Holy Word.

60:50 We thank You for this precious chapter that You have been pleased to bless to our hearts over a period of many weeks. And as we've gone back into its field to glean these principles, oh, we ask, gracious Spirit, apply them with power in all the areas where You know we most need them. And may we not be idle hearers of the Word, but doers of the same. Lord, we plead for those who in their hearts are saying, not today, I'll get saved by and by.

61:28 No time now to think of repentance and faith. Lord, what can we do? What can we say? We ask You to do what we cannot do, to speak where we can never go, in the deepest chambers of the heart, and there constrain men and women and boys and girls to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ.

61:53 We ask for us, Your people, that we would be kept in readiness, not the false readiness of the religious fanatic who dresses in his robe and waits upon a hill and looks upward, but in that readiness that takes each day and lives it out in principled obedience in communion with You, seeking to do whatever we do, eating, drinking to Your glory. Oh, may we be a people ready that when He appears, Himself the sign, that our hearts will leap within us and we shall not be found ashamed at His coming. Oh, Lord Jesus, how long, how long

62:37 ere we hear the glad song, Christ returneth, Hallelujah. Oh, Lord Jesus, even so, Amen.